HBO's Hobgoblin gets director Darren Aronofsky

Filmmaker Darren Aronofsky decided he didn't want to spend time in Japan for THE WOLVERINE, but he's willing to visit WWII Europe for HBO.

Aronofsky will direct the pilot for the cable network's new potential series "Hobgoblin", from Pulitzer-winning author and Hollywood script doctor Michael Chabon ("The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay") and his author wife Ayelet Waldman ("Love And Other Impossible Pursuits").

Besides the talent, what's got the deep-pocketed HBO all fired up about the project? The series involves "a group of con men and magicians who use their skills of deception to help defeat Hitler and the Germans during World War II." And I honestly don't know who wouldn't want to watch that, except maybe Hitler.

Since BLACK SWAN (and his WOLVERINE departure), the scarfed/'stached director has also been working on getting his big-budget biblical epic NOAH going, and has also considered a sci-fi script called HUMAN NATURE that could star George Clooney.